I’ve started doing primal diet. I ordered Mark Sisson’s book, The Primal Blueprint. Still waiting for it to arrive.
I’m starting out at 226. I should probably weigh around 185-195 given my height and build. I’ve been cooking high-fat/high-protein, zero-grains, eating tons of sauteed and fresh veggies and some fruits and nuts. I have dropped a couple pounds in just a few days (probably mostly water weight) but I do feel more energy. Even small things… my sense of touch has become more sensitive, my sense of smell has become more sensitive and I feel more energy and have not experienced those headachey hunger pangs despite having gotten hungry a couple times due to not having a snack handy.
I’m committed to doing this … it’s not even a new year’s resolution, it has just happened that circumstances have coalesced to this point. I’m interested in hearing if anyone else is doing primal or something close and what your stories are.
My immediate goals are: get to 210 (I expect it to take 2-3 weeks), then I’m going to sign up for Judo again. This will constitute my “Lift Heavy Things” high-intensity workouts twice weekly. I had signed up back in 2007 and went for about 3 months but the trauma was just too much due to my weight (I was around 220 back then). From there, I want to go down to my natural weight and body composition and once again “Look Good Naked.” I can’t wait to be me again.
I’ve also been thinking about going primal. I don’t need to lose weight - rather, I want to gain more lean muscle mass. Having read several parts of Mark Sisson’s website, I think the primal recipes alone would be a great benefit to me.
I was going to add that you shouldn’t neglect weight lifting, but it appears that you’ve already got that covered. I do suggest some pure weight lifting however. I started doing that a year ago and after just a few months I could feel the gain. Plus, lifting boosts your metabolism for long after you’re done for the day. Anyway, good luck!
@Wheylous: Lifting heavy things is definitely good but I’ve never really felt comfortable in a standard gym. I just can’t explain why. I like Judo and, yes, you do plenty of heavy lifting. I have pretty good natural muscle definition (I was a bean-stalk until about 20 then I “filled out” … then a few years after that I started to “round out” ), so I mainly just need to lose the fat and tone the muscle I already have.
The BJJ guys do this thing called “Ginastica Natural” that I just stumbled across and I’m considering learning to do those movements… they look like a great way to get a light to moderate workout on days when I’m not going to the dojo. I have plenty of bodyweight to move around (even when I’m not overweight) so I really like the idea of bodyweight-based workouts.
The hard part is staying on it. If your wife/girlfriend/roommate/whatever cooks for you, then that person has agree with your new philosophy regarding food; otherwise, you’ll have to cook for yourself. I had to cook for myself while I was on it, but then came finals and I didn’t have that much time to cook. But I’ve been getting back on it.
I went from 210 to 195 in about two months, but then gained a few pounds during finals because I went off it (I ate a lot potatoes and sweets during the holidays, and ate a lot of breaded fried chicken from Popeyes). At first, you’ll loose a lot of water that your body has been withholding to process junk, but you’ll eventually start to loose fat and build muscle if you exercise and not sit in front of your computer all day.
Also, drink a lot of water!!! Chilled/ice water works for me, but you can add lemon juice (directly from a lemon) to give it some taste. Also, beware the breaded anything. Say, you go to a Chinese restaurant and have the orange chicken and forego the rice, you’ll still eat a lot of carbs because the orange chicken is breaded and the ratio of the breading to meat is about 1 to 1. Same goes for the fried chicken from Popeyes.
EDIT: Also, if your goal is to loose inches of your waist, add muscle, gain definitions, then don’t focus on losing weight. Instead, focus on what your body looks like and feels.
Congratulations on your newfound perspective on nutrition and fitness! I have been eating primally (sort of) for about 6 months and it has made a world of difference in my life. I want to post more but I am busy right now and I was so excited I had to get into the thread! So Grok on!
I’m interested as to what your take on dairy is. A friend of mine went primal about six months ago, with astonishing results. He’s lost about 30 pounds since, and kept it off, though he slacked for a few weeks during the holidays. He’s pretty active and gets a lot of exercise, but generally stays away from dairy, though.
He tells me that Sisson is sort of neutral on dairy products. Why is this, exactly? I love milk and cheese…!
@Lewis: Good question… dairy has been one of the catalysts in my decision. About a year ago, I developed lactose-intolerance. I didn’t consume more than the average American so I was puzzled why this happened to me. I did a little reading and found that lactose-tolerance is itself “aberrant” from the point-of-view of human evolutionary diet… human beings didn’t regularly consume dairy until after we domesticated animals, which we probably didn’t do to any significant degree until the last 10,000 years.
There is a “lactose-switch” in your genes that, before about 10,000 years ago, would have switched off in your early childhood (I may not be saying this completely scientifically accurately but you get the idea). You don’t need to digest lactose when you’re not drinking your mother’s breastmilk anymore. But humans now have a wide variation in lactose tolerance… I understand mainland Europe has the highest average age at which lactose-intolerance sets in (some people never get it) and some countries have less than 5% lactose tolerance in adults.
When I learned this, I remembered reading some of these crazy Mark Sisson articles on LRC from time to time and it just clicked. Then I realized… holy crap, he’s right, the human diet is the result of millions of years of evolution and you can’t just switch out your digestive tract like it’s a '69 Impala drivetrain. It takes many, many generations of evolution to switch from a primarily protein-fat diet to a primarily carb diet, yet we eat a massively carb-heavy diet nowadays and even the low-carb diets still have you eating grains despite the fact that humans never ate grains until very recently in terms of our evolutionary history.
I remember feeling a fire for life when I was a teenager… and somehow along the way this got lost. I considered every possible reason for it except diet. Then when I began to suspect it might be diet and lifestyle, I tried working out, tried low-carb diets but it still didn’t “feel right”… it wasn’t making me feel like I did when I was young… full of zest for life. But this feels right. Unless God screwed up, living in optimal health should feel optimally good! The idea that optimal health consists of half-starving yourself on a calorie-restricted, low-fat diet while flogging yourself on the treadmill day after day is obviously absurd.
Anyway, dairy is not an unrestricted option for me anymore, so that choice has been made for me. I have it on occasion with a lactase pill but only in something like Greek yogurt or some of the dry Italian cheeses.
I have decided that, whatever the case, I will eat right. Right now, I’m exploring recipe options and trying to get more comfortable in the kitchen. I’ve been cooking for myself to one degree or another over the last few years but I want to take it to the next level. If someone else can cook something healthy and nutritious, I’m happy to eat it. Otherwise, I can just snack on some nuts or pastrami and pass until the next chance I have to fix a real meal.
That’s the difference with the high-protein/low-carb/low-fat diets I’ve tried before… it isn’t just about the protein anymore, it’s about everything… it’s about not eating poison, not eating sugars and carbs with no nutrition in them (non-veggie carbs). I don’t think I’ll miss it. My ancestry is Nordic and I’m pretty sure they ate a very high-protein, high-fat diet so I suspect that the primal nutrition is additionally true for me. Some people may have some adapted tolerance for grains but I’m probably not one of those people.
For a minimal “primal” schedule: Hill sprints, clean and press (rocks, logs, whatever), rope climb/ thick grip pullups
A lot of people make working out complicated, but it isn’t really. Compound movements and realistic applications are two principles which when followed have the highest crossover to real life competition. That is if performance is what you’re after. If you’re into cosmetics then bicep curls and pec flies can’t hurt but there’ll be little application for those movements other than lifting a jug of milk or something. I’m also not too big a fan of lifting 600 lb weights since that doesn’t seem to have much crossover either, plus there’s the significant risk of injury and the enormous caloric intake required to reach that goal. It’s more of a thing in itself at that point, rather than something to be applied outside of the weight room. You’d still be a beast to be able to deadlift 600 lbs, but for the application that has to, say, tackling someone, one could train by tackling someone and get the same results in a much shorter period of time. It sounds like you know what your doing Clayton but I felt like contributing to the thread Anyways if you want to look good naked, why bother with high intensity?
I’ve always had a soft spot for martial arts… I went to a boxing club for a year or so and screwed around with my buddies practicing all sorts of moves. Judo has always had a particular attraction for me because it combines the realism of competition with the depth of long historical experience derived from actual battle (jiu-jutsu).
The Judo workout is very cardio intensive but it is also very short - that makes it primal-compatible, in my view. I guess it kind of combines the LHT and Sprinting components into one package. The attitude of formality and respect in the dojo also makes it very easy to feel like you’re coming home to a warm cup of tea… something familiar, something comforting. Putting on your gi gives you a feeling of belonging and purpose and sets the mood for making the most of the time spent in the dojo. Working on ukemi (falls) and related exercises before the workout begins in earnest provides you the chance to work on being precise without pressure.
One of the things Mark mentions in his list of a dream workout area is a “wild animal to wrestle around” - well, that’s precisely what Judo gives you in the form of your sparring partner. You can’t ask for a workout that more completely challenges the mind-body-combination. You have no option but to learn to think with your body which is what I consider being “in the primal state”… thinking and moving all in one step.
This is good. I recommend eating wild, raw vegan tho. Too much chemicals in the meat. also eating meat is unnatural. Pasteurized milk is poison in a can. See what works for you tho
Well, that’s precisely the opposite of what Primal lifestyle is all about. Our evolutionary ancestors indisputably ate meat. They were carnivores to the extent they could manage it and supplemented with nuts, berries and any other easily foraged food sources. The human body expects to eat lots of animal proteins and animal fats, along with nuts, berries, fruits and vegetables (mostly cooked). The human digestive tract is highly efficient, it expends a tiny fraction of the calories digesting its food that the digestive tract of a goat, for example, expends. This is because goats and all other animals (to my knowledge) eat raw food but we do not. The human digestive process actually begins with cooking, not when the food is inserted into your mouth. The fact that our digestive tract is so physiologically unique is evidence that we’ve been cooking our food for a very long time, even in evolutionary terms.
Of course, our ancestors still also ate raw food. So a portion of your diet should consist of fresh veggies and fruits - I just had a Big Ass Salad for dinner tonight - but it shouldn’t be the dominant part. If you have the nerve, you can also consider eating raw animal products… certainly raw eggs and properly handled raw fish are safe to consume.
Our ancestors were “whole animal” consumers. This is a bit difficult for me since I kind of can’t stomach (pun intended) the idea of eating organs… yuck. I had my experience with chicken livers as a kid with my Mom’s Aunt feeding them to us kids on pain of dessert. However, I think broths and whole-bird soups (put the whole chicken in the pressure cooker and cook it, innards and all) can provide an alternative that I can psychologically deal with at this point. Maybe as I get a little older, I’ll branch out. I’ve heard that thinly sliced cow tongue can make a great delicacy.
), so I mainly just need to lose the fat and tone the muscle I already have.
Anyways if you want to look good naked, why bother with high intensity?